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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Today
is the last day of July and the last day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and
guess what? With this post I made
it. I managed to post every single day…exactly
31 posts!!

Yesterday my kids and I visited a real jewel here in my hometown:
Wellfield Botanical Gardens. While the
kids busied themselves finding everything on a scavenger hunt tailor made for
them, I zoomed in my camera lens to capture some of the beauty around me. To mark the end of the Ultimate Blogging
Challenge, another month of NaBloPoMo, and Wordless Wednesday, I would like to
share some of my favorite pictures with you!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

With the first day of school closing in fast I
have been running around trying to get things around for it. I am up to my ears in school supplies and
school clothes!! Today the kids and I
went school clothes shopping and took a walk through the Wellfield Botanical Gardens, capping off the day with a trip to Subway for our favorite sub
sandwiches.

It was a busy day and while
travelling here to there I kept hereRandy Houser singing “Running out of
Moonlight” and found myself singing along. This song sums up my day this
Tuesday so it is the perfect song for Tuesday Tunes because with all that
chasing around, and more blogs needing to be written, comments to be answered
and returned, and the days of the Ultimate Blog Challenge running out fast, I
feel like I am running out of moonlight!!
Happy Tuesday everyone!

Monday, July 29, 2013

NaBloPoMo
asks whether I connect more with the past, the present, or the future. The answer to that question really wasn’t
that hard for me to muddle through.

When I
was growing up I looked toward the future with bright eyes and high hopes. I believed that dreams could come true for me
and that anything was possible. I was
optimistic and had high hopes. I had
both of my parents and they were my biggest cheerleaders and support
system. I will admit they were my best
friends, and I clung to them and enjoyed their company.

Then
they both died, one by one, and I was left in a tailspin completely devastated.Right after each of their deaths I
desperately clung to the past afraid to move on for fear I would lose them entirely.I didn’t want to get rid of their
things.I didn’t want to put away their
pictures.I couldn’t stay away from the
cemetery.I was pathetic.My mother’s death rocked me to my core.By the time my dad died I was aware that the
day would come when he wouldn’t be here.I wasn’t in denial.I knew it was
a possibility and when he died I let him go.

Now
that I have been through their deaths, a divorce, and the loss of a much
anticipated baby, I tend to lock the past in a special place and live in the
now rarely taking it out to dust it off and contemplate. I don’t look toward the future. I don’t dream. I take life as it comes, be happy with the
blessings I have, and live one day at a time letting God have control of my
life. It is just easier that way. I have finally figured out how to be happy in
my own skin and quit mourning things I can do nothing about. I choose to connect with the present because
the past is gone and the future has yet to be written. It is my way to move on and keep on living
the best I can.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

The
kitchen table was sitting on the front lawn waiting to be auctioned off. As I watched prospective bidders mill around
my parent’s things memories came rushing back.
Every season warranted a new tablecloth.
If it was Christmas, the tablecloth featured holly berries or a Currier
and Ives scene. If it was Halloween,
there would be pumpkins. If it was
Easter, there would be Easter eggs or bunnies.
It is funny the things a person remembers.

So
many memories from coloring Easter eggs to turkey dinners punctuated with the
laughter of my family. There were nights
gathered around the table playing Monopoly and seeing my Dad enjoying his ice
cream before bedtime. On holidays the
leaves would go in and the table would magically grow to hold all the marvelous
food my parents prepared.

Now
the table is empty devoid of a table cloth.
My parents are gone and the family that once was will never gather
around it again. I still have my
memories, but it is time for the table to find a new home. Life is about changing and nothing ever stays
the same. With a lump in my throat I take one last look
and walk away.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

The
powers that be at NaBloPoMowonder “Can you easily connect with your feelings
and understand where they come from?”
Well yes, without a doubt. I
think I am pretty in tune with my feelings.
I can get in touch with my sensitive side if need be. If I am pissed, I know it. Usually most everyone around me knows it
too. There is usually no mystery
there. If I am sad or depressed, that is
pretty obvious too. Pretty much what you
see is what you get.

I am
not one of those folks that need to pay someone to sort the feelings out for
me. If I am jealous, I know it. If I am amused, I know that too. Do I understand where those feelings come
from? Well sure, I usually have my
reasons for all those feelings. Do I
understand why I tend to prefer my own company instead of rolling along with a
group? No, I don’t but after 45 years in
this skin, I have accepted that it is just one of my many quirks.

Whenever I feel bat shit crazy I chalk that up to those pre-menopausal
hormones that according to my doctor are already starting to rage. While I don’t
want to think I am old enough to have to cope with such things, my all-knowing
doctor assures me I am. That is right up there with the well-meaning advice
that I need to lose some weight and exercise more. I wouldn’t think it would take a rocket
science mentality to figure it out as long as you are pretty in tune with
yourself. Unfortunately I have found
that wisdom comes with time and experience so you tend to have more of a clue
the older you get.

Friday, July 26, 2013

This
weekend my husband was in need of a nut so he sent my daughter and I off to
Lowes to find some. I had the old nut in
hand and marched myself purposefully into the store heading straight for where
they store such things. Somehow some
things that are perfectly normal can sound so wrong when you are trying to
explain it to someone else. That is when
the giggles take over…especially if you explain yourself with a straight face
in the first place.

Who
would have thought I would have reached my hand into the first box of nuts and
found exactly the size I needed?
Seriously, I did though!! It
surely looked like the old nut, a perfect match by my eye. About that time one of those ever helpful
Lowe’s employees sauntered over and asked if I needed any assistance. I promptly explained that my husband needed
a new set of nuts and wondered if the one I found looked about right. He looked at me and burst out laughing and
then I realized exactly what I said.
Amid uproarious giggles that became quite contagious he asked me if I
had checked it out with the nut checker.
Excuse me? Lowe’s has a nut checker, a physical place you can go to
check your nuts? Laughing all the way he
led me to a wall covered with screws and took the nut I brought with me and
picked a protruding bolt and proceeded to screw it on. Then he screwed on one of the new nuts. While I stood in open mouthed amazement he
congratulated me on finding an exact match.

I
guess you never know where you will find a giggle lurking and I happened to
find one at the nut checker wall at Lowe’s.
I left the store feeling as if I had made a life defining discovery and
fulfilled with the wonder of obtaining knowledge I didn’t previously have. Another post in the record books forNaBloPoMo and the Ultimate Blogging Challenge!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Over the weekend we went camping, which is
part of the reason I haven’t been posting. No worries because I intend to catch up so I
can finish the Ultimate Blogging Challengein epic style with my 31 posts! I love
camping and it was the first time all summer we have went to an actual campground. Sure there have been plenty
of nights out in the camper outside our back door, but we never actually went
anywhere.

We packed our gear and headed to the Eby Pines Campground in Bristol, Indiana.
They have a ginormous swimming pool that has a water slide my son loves
and a huge water umbrella you can swim under.
I digress though. Nearby our
campsite was the traditional pit toilet.
This year the campground had erected a fancy new building over the pit
toilet site complete with electric lights.
Thinking this might not be so bad, my kids and I made a beeline for the pit
toilet with an urgent need to pee. I was
impressed until I walked into the door.
Sure it was clean enough, but as soon as you opened the door, and in
some cases before that, you were bowled over by an eye watering, gag reflex
stench that literally took your breath away!!
A person literally had to hold your breath to pee then vault for the
door as if shot off the shitter by a canon.
The smell was that bad. What
could I possibly expect from a pit toilet?

As my son marveled how far down his pee
had to drop, I wondered how much more money it would have taken to have an
electric fan installed along with that nice building and those electric lights. Can we get some ventilation please? Perhaps an industrial sized can of
Febreeze? What is the point of building
such a fine structure and installing electric lights and a hand sanitizer
dispenser if you fail to provide some form of ventilation? From that moment on we walked a little
farther to the shower house to do our business skirting a wide path around the
reeking pit toilet.

I love to camp but I have got to have a
clean toilet devoid of God awful shit and urine smell. It is a must.
Even if a person squatted behind a tree to take a leak you would have
better air quality than that. Since I am
traipsing into those menopausal years I always have to pee in the middle of the
night so my daughter always makes the trek to the bathroom with me when we are
at the campground. Even if she doesn’t
have to go, by the time we get there, she probably will.

The moon and stars were bright in the sky and
we were singing “I’m walking in the moonlight” and laughing our fool heads off
all the way. Not another soul seemed to
be stirring except for us. As we neared
the pit toilet we noticed this creepy woman that appeared quite not all there staring
at the pit toilet but making no moves to enter or retreat. Maybe she was
waiting for someone, maybe she was wondering whether she should stay, or whether she should go, whatever the case, we walked a little quicker and sang a
little quieter with a bounce in our step and a song in our hearts.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

While I have shared pictures of my kids awards from this year's 4H fair, I have yet to share pictures of the projects that won such distinction. My daughter won first place in drawing, her wildlife poster (which is the black Habitat poster on the bottom row), baking a sweet braided pretzel, for a crocheted afghan, and for her frozen broccoli and cauliflower blend. This year was my son's first year in Exploring 4H and won his ribbon for his non-bake cookies. It was a great year at the fair for my family and I am so proud of my kids!